MONEY CAN NOT BUY HAPPINESS

—forty thousand euros. Forty thousand euros! What a motherfucker! How could I like a swelling like that? He left me barely enough to pay my two employees and I must consider myself lucky that he forgot my savings accounts at the bank. I hate this guy! I'll take my revenge if I ever meet him again, I grumbled in front of my only listener made up of glass.

“Alison, stop brooding over that bottle,” my cousin Lucas interrupts. Your ex is trash, but looking at the new bottle of vodka isn't going to make you bounce back.

- Are you sure you do not want me to become a waitress in your bar? I asked him for the umpteenth time. You pay me for two months, even a pittance I take, so I can reinject my savings into my business, I harped on him.

- Tss! he says with his mouth, shaking his head and clearing the next table.

He goes to put his tray on the counter for his companion, Steve, to take it before coming back to me to sit down. I buried my head in my arms again. He tugs on a strand of my blond hair to let me know he's not done with me. I look up at him, still slumped on the table

“Allie, you're not going to work with us in this bar for several reasons. The first, we don't yet have the means to pay an employee, otherwise I would have lent you the money because I know you would give it back to me. The second, you don't drink alcohol, you'd suck for this job. The third is that you're too pretty and you couldn't stand a drunk putting his hand on your ass without smashing his glass on his face. If you're a client, I accept it and I kick the guy out, as an employee, I kick the guy out and I fire the employee. I don't know if it's possible but I don't want to know.

He pushes the full bottle away to see me better.

— The main reason is that your box is great, you advertise on a small scale but I've only heard good things about it among the other merchants in the area. You are the pride of the family, you started your business, alone without contact. They all see only through you. Alison this, Alison that, we're all proud of you, he said, rubbing my arm.

- Why me ? You took over a bar and no one praises you when you also have a business. It's not fair to you, I never asked for the whole family to count on me. They're pissing me off more than anything, I mumble.

He laughs and pats my head like I'm a child.

"You're straight, Allie dear. For Aunt Corinne, devout to the extreme, it's more important than my bar. I'm grateful, she still talks to me and kisses me, he laughs.

He puts his mouth in a cul-de-poule to make me laugh but I don't feel like it. He makes a gesture towards the bottle but I prevent him from taking it. I send it away, shaking my hand forward into the void.

- Go to work, your customers will not delay, I said, hoping to see him leave and leave me alone.

“Allie, you know you can eat here every night until your finances are better. Before you protest, the proposal came from Steve, but I agree with him. You made our publicity for free on your free time, consider it your pay in food, he said smiling to me before becoming serious again. While you hear me, don't drink alcohol or leave with a client unless I give you permission, he threatens me. I do not want you to fuck the first comer to forget your problems.

"Why shouldn't I drink?" I can forget with the drink, I retort.

- I do not want to clean your vomit, he replies before walking away.

I watch Lucas leave. No one in my family would have thought they liked men until they saw Steve turn up five years ago on New Year's Eve. I'm thinking of our aunt Corinne who nearly fainted when she found them in front of the room snogging anthology. Frankly, a guy with the beard and build of a lumberjack like Lucas, the flannel shirt that comes with it, is anything but effeminate. We all went for big rednecks when we learned about it, even if the family got used to the idea since.

Steve doesn't fit the same mold, but he doesn't fit the stereotype, either. He's tall, dark-haired, with dark eyes, whereas my cousin has irises and hair as light as mine. He's well built but not as beefy as Lucas. I find that they complement each other perfectly and their love is sincere and endearing. I almost want to be in love seeing them, I just have to avoid the assholes.

I observe their bar, I find it soothing especially the brick wall behind my back. They have taste, I love the black and white photos of the singers whom I don't know but who, according to Steve, are very well known by lovers of good music. I listen to commercial pop, my biggest fault according to them. The counter is made of zinc, an industrial style that goes pretty well with the rest. I'm sitting on a black leather bench with a padded backrest.

The place is chic and I feel like I'm wearing out my crumpled blouse and my jeans with holes in them. I push my glasses back up my nose. I put them on to rest my eyes after working part of the day on the computer. Given the insomnia since my breakup and the discovery of his felony, my eyes need support to see better.

To escape boredom, I take out my cell phone and go on social networks. Taken by a sudden urge, I take a picture of the bottle and add the caption "Brewery in the evening, and moral support when you need it, welcome to my cousin's bar!". I activate the localization to display the place and I publish on my profile. My cousin walks past my table, takes the bottle and puts my plate in front of me, ground beef and fries, and a glass of soda.

After eating, Lucas removes my plate, refills my glass and walks away to serve the other customers. I slump back onto the table, rest my chin on the surface, and swirl the liquid around in my glass. I wince and move my head to put it against the surface. I ruminate again on my misfortune when a voice says close to me:

- Lili ? Alison, is that you?

I sit up on the bench and look at the pretty brunette who looks at me questioningly. My brain takes several minutes to recognize Lola, my former neighbor and friend. We lost touch after her parents died in a car accident and she left with her brother to live with her grandparents fifteen years earlier. I recognize it because we recently reconnected on social networks. She's not very tall but has a big smile that makes me forget my problems for a moment.

- Lola! I exclaimed. Come ! Sit down ! Do you want to eat something ? I ask him.

She sits in front of me, still smiling at me.

- I arrived not long ago and as the fridge at home is empty, I chose to eat in town. I didn't know where to go, since it had been years since I had set foot in the area. I wanted to see the comments on the restaurants in the area and I came across your post. I hope you don't blame me but I thought you might still be there so I said to myself why not see Lili again at the same time, she tells me with the same enthusiasm as in our childhood.

I smile. My cousin notices it and comes to our table.

- Let me introduce myself, I'm Lucas, Alison's cousin and one of the owners of the bar. You made him smile so you won a free drink, he tells her.

"Lucas, shut up. Take her order and pass it on to your guy so she can eat. Lola is a childhood friend. She lived in the house next to the one where my parents lived before selling, I introduce her.

He gives me the military salute to make me understand that he is going to carry out my orders before taking his order and walking away.

"Is your cousin gay?" she asks me mischievously.

I nod my head. She laughs softly.

- It should be bi, there would be something for everyone especially with his physique, she said in a tone of humor.

She watches Lucas talk to Steve before adding.

- Nice couple, they go well together.

- They've been together for six years, I commented.

She sighs before accepting the drink my cousin hands her with a big smile.

- Six years ! I'm happy when I manage to stay almost a year with a guy, especially with my brother and his partner who brings back their strawberry without being asked. I'm calling Theo's partner her henchman, she said, winking at me. Always glued to his coattails and telling me what I should do. I should have traveled with him but I found a bogus excuse to come before them.

I had a hard time imagining his brother Theo as an adult bullying his sister's boyfriends. It must be said that we see him little during our childhood games. We were girls and girls sucked as teenagers.

"Where are you staying?" I ask him.

— In the family home, normally I never go there, but Theo's business is moving to the area and we're there to find new premises. Théo, who went there from time to time, told me that your parents had sold their house.

I nod.

— They didn't have a big salary and the house required a lot of expenses. As I no longer lived with them, they sold and bought a small apartment not far from their work. Since then, they have lived more comfortably.

- Good for them, she rejoices. My grandparents had rented out the house after my parents left. They refused to sell so you had the choice to keep it or sell it. Theo wants to keep it and personally, I don't care. I am Theo's assistant and Jules, his partner. I take care of their planning and paperwork. And you? What do you do in life ? she asks me curiously.

I let out a heartbreaking sigh.

- I'm mostly screwed! I grimaced. I have a small scale advertising business, I only work with locals. Because of my asshole ex, if I can't find a solution, I'll soon be on the street. He stole almost all of my company's bank account, I told him to make him understand the extent of my problem. It's been a week and the cops don't know where he disappeared to. That's why I'm depressed in my cousin's bar and not in jail for murder.

She looks at me intensely. Lucas brings her the salad she ordered. She thanks him before turning her attention back to me.

"Tell me all the details while I'm eating and I'll see what I can find to help you." I'm used to it, I've been managing my brother and his henchman and their conquests for three years. We'll find a solution, trust me, she assures me confidently.

For the past week, I have the impression that my future has become clearer and I have regained hope. I tell him the whole story from the beginning of my relationship with this moron until the discovery of his treachery. I realize that I needed a friendly ear to confide in. Lola listens to me religiously and asks me questions when she needs clarification. I see my history with this asshole in another way. At the end of her meal, I invite her to come to my apartment to continue the conversation and I am happy that she accepts it.